29 June 2014

Winter War Soviets: NKVD Squad

I recently received the figures for my Chain of Command Winter War Soviets. There are several choices in 20mm Soviets, but none really for early war. My research leads me to believe that the Soviets troops sent to Finland in 1939 had slightly different uniforms then those in mid and late war. I believe they had a different helmut and neither snow suits nor telogrieka uniforms had yet been issued. Really I had not much choice except for troops in overcoats. I had a long look and really the nicest figures were TQD Castings Kursk Soviets.

When they arrived a couple of weeks ago, I was quite pleased with my choice. Wrong helmets but other wise good to go.They really are nice figures. Chain of Command lists the Winter War soviets has having 4 fifteen man squads in each platoon. To break things up, I decided to go with one squad of NKVD. Multiple sources indicate that several regiments of NKVD border police fought in Finland, but I really could not resist the blue and red cap of the NKVD internal police. Not really in winter attire but so it goes.

Soviet squads in CoC have a JL, 12 riflemen and a 2 man LMG team. There was no LMG's modeled in the TQD NKVD figures so I decided to make a slight adjustment. I substituted the LMG with 4 SMG armed men as well as an SMG armed JL. This makes them slightly overpowered at close in fighting but underpowered at longer ranges. However, according to the CoCulator both squads work out to being 25 points. I liked the idea of the NKVD being sent in has close combat troops.

As you can see these are very nice figures, it would have been nice to have more poses but that is a very minor criticism. Mark at CP Models was great with which to deal, and I can highly recommend this company and these troops.

The NKVD came with slotta bases, I cut them down and then used the residual metal to buttress the figure

They appear pretty solid

I have only a few soviet vehicles left to winterize they should be up soon.